Today, I joined because I finally accepted that I need support from people who understand what it feels like to live with anxiety. Yesterday, thanks to a very emotional Netflix show, I was able to explain to my husband what it was like to live with anxiety. It was the first time I have ever seen my anxiety written so accurately. My husband knows that I suffer from anxiety but has never understood to the extent, until yesterday.
My anxiety makes me a different person, one that I don't like. We have discussed taking medication, however, I struggle with the idea since I watched my mother become addicted to most medications. I want to learn to manage it and not rely on prescription only. With yoga and CBD oil, I have been able to maintain and begin to live life accepting my anxiety.
Welcome to the cuckoo's nest, hpyoga😊You say your mother became addicted to meds, I think this means her meds were working so well she didn't want to come off them. But you can come off any med when you decide by slowly tapering down the dosage.
If anxiety disorder becomes overwhelming and one has work or family responsibilities then meds will bring respite and allow you to carry on. But nobody wants to be on meds for life if they can help it and of course when you stop taking anti anxiety meds the problem usually returns.
However, you can recover from anxiety disorder without recourse to meds. I presume you have been diagnosed with anxiety by a doctor, there's always a small chance anxiety can be caused by a thyroid problem, something that can be easily remedied.
Anxiety disorder usually follows a long period of stress, worry, overwork, loss or guilt etc. Finally our nerves reach anxiety overload and become over sensitive. This changes our perception of things: small problems seem like insurmountable obstacles and minor aches and pains become life threatening illnesses. Some experience agoraphobia, others derealisation. Others have panic attacks or strange ideas.
The symptoms of anxiety are many but but they are all phoney, they are not real threats or illnesses. They are tricks of our over sensitised nervous system, but are no less bothersome for being fake.
Hpyoga, you can't cure yourself of an illness you haven't got no matter how hard you try. So I suggest it's far better to concentrate on the cause of your symptoms rather than the symptoms themselves - and the cause is anxiety due to over sensitised nerves.
Nerves remain sensitive because of the fear hormone we constantly bombard them with. So we enter a vicious circle of fear causing sensitivity causing more symptoms causing more fear causing more sensitivity causing more symptoms and so on ad infinitum.
Recovery lies in stopping this constant bombardment of our nerves with fear allowing them to recover. Just as the body recovers from infection or injury so your nerves are waiting to heal themselves.
One way to overcome fear is to frame your mind to accept for the moment all the symptoms without fighting them, obsessing about them or stressing about them. The symptoms are uncomfortable but if you can accept them truly and utterly for the time being you will gradually lose your fear of them and the healing process can begin.
This is the acceptance method devised by Claire Weekes, a renowned psychiatrist, some 50 years ago. May I suggest you go to YouTube and search for Claire Weekes and listen to some of her talks about how to apply acceptance and how it leads to respite and recovery. One such YouTube video is 'Peace from nervous suffering' but there are many others, all good.
I wish you well in your recovery which, I assure you, can be gained no matter how long or how deeply you have suffered.
Thank you for your kind words. While I disagree with a few things you have said, overall, I agree that accepting life with anxiety is an important step. Anxiety is a complex issue and, I do not feel there is one answer to managing it. For some, it is medicine, for others, it is physical activity. For me, I enjoy yoga, playing with my dogs, reading, and writing.
I think we are talking about different definitions of the word 'acceptance'.
The acceptance that Claire Weekes taught was to accept the symptoms 'for the time being' as a way of stopping the constant resensitisation of the nervous system thereby eventually leading to recovery. This is a very simplistic explanation of her method that since the 1960s has brought recovery to thousands worldwide.
This is quite different to accepting anxiety for life. God forbid that anybody should have to accept anxiety for life.
My understanding is that physical activity brings temporary respite from anxiety by burning up certain hormones that cause anxiety. But it does not provide cure.
Weekes' method is concerned with complete recovery from anxiety disorder rather than managing it for life.
Recovery can sometimes be spontaneous when certain stress factors causing it are removed. For everybody else recovery depends on desensitisation of the nervous system and in 45 years study of this subject I have come across no other method that achieves this.
I am so sorry you are going through this. Anxiety is such a difficult thing to struggle with. It is good that you have your husband there for you so he can be with you whenever you are feeling down! It is so important to have someone close to you know what you are going through so they can try to help you any way they can. I hope everything gets better!
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